Following a number of months of speculation in the Daily Fantasy Sports industry, DraftKings and FanDuel have finally announced that they intend to merge operations.
Although the media has not yet released many details regarding the terms of the agreement it has, however, revealed that the merger is expected to take place in the second quarter of 2017. The merger of these two powerhouses will only be finalized after the approval of regulatory authorities. The merged group will have its headquarters in New York and Boston.
According to sources close to the Daily Fantasy Sports companies, there will be a split of 50/50 between the groups, with each group having three seats on the board.
The current Chief Executive Officer of DraftKings, Jason Roberts, will act as the new Chief Executive Officer of the merged company while the current Chief Executive Officer of FanDuel, Nigel Eccles, will fill the role of Chairman. There will be one independent Director of the merged company.
Jason Roberts released a statement recently wherein he stated that DraftKings has always been passionate about providing the best possible experience for its customers. He also said that the merger would help DraftKings advance its goal of building a transformational global sports entertainment platform.
Nigel Eccles, of FanDuel, added that the ability to combine DraftKings and FanDuel presented a tremendous opportunity for the groups to further innovate the sports industry.
Eccles went on to say that this transaction will create a business that can offer a greater variety of offerings, appealing to new users, including the tens of millions of season-long fantasy players that have not yet tried their products. Each company will maintain their own separate brands until officially merging in April of next year.